Fridgewheatfield 2019 GOTY Awards
Normally I would go through the TGA nominations and give my thoughts on who the winner of each was for me. But 2019 kinda sucked for games imo, and I didn’t play very many. So instead, I want to highlight 5 games I really loved this year and give them each their own award. So here they are:
Best AAA Game: God of War (2018)
This game really took me by surprise. I got it in the Summer for 50% off and hoped it would scratch an itch that I knew a 3rd BOTW playthrough wouldn’t quite scratch. I didn’t expect much from it except for maybe some fun gameplay, since I had never played another game in the series, but it won a lot of GOTY awards in 2018, so I figured it was worth a try for the discount.
This game floored me. I was enamored from start to finish. The environments, the story, the characters, and especially the gameplay had me glued to this game for 10 hours a day for almost a week. I have never felt such guilt from shafting irl responsibilities in order to play a game. The graphics are among the best of this generation. The world building and main quest line kept me interested and actually listening the entire time. The relationship between Kratos and Atreus was strangely relatable, but never had me siding with one character over the other for too long. And the combat is probably the most immersive, diverse, and fast-paced of any game I’ve played. I fought thousands of enemies and I wouldn’t be surprised if there were only a few enemies that I actually killed in the exact same ways. This game was a huge pleasant surprise for me, and the ending pushed its hypothetical sequel near the top of my list of most anticipated games. 10/10
Most Satisfying: A Hat in Time
A Hat in Time finally came to Switch this year after what felt like an eternity. I was waiting for this game to come to Nintendo since the Kickstarter was announced. Before we knew about Mario Odyssey or Yooka-Laylee, it was refreshing to see that anybody still had interest in reviving the genre of game I loved most as a kid.
This game is EXACTLY what I wanted it to be: A love letter to every Gamecube game I played ad nauseum. A Hat in Time masterfully blends the freeform movement of Mario Sunshine, an art style inspired by Wind Waker, and the charming dialogue of Thousand Year Door to create a game that starts at a 10 and never lets you down. There must have been 20 times during this game where I said to myself, “I hope this game [does this],” and the game followed through with shocking consistency. With customization, easter eggs, references, and humor stuffed into every mission, this game reminded me of everything I loved about the games I grew up with. But this game isn’t just bells and whistles, it also features some of the most engaging level design of any 3D platformer I’ve played. A train murder mystery, a free-roam around a cruise ship paradise run by uwu-speaking seals, and genuinely one of the scariest segments in any game I’ve played were some of the highlights. But none of this game’s 30+ main missions ever disappointed. While the graphical quality and technical performance were less than stellar, everything that the game WANTED to be more than made this game an easy 9/10.
Funniest Game: Untitled Goose Game
I never understood all the buzz about this game leading up to its release. You’re just a goose? What do you even do?
I was skeptical, but this game did not let me down. There was something strangely hilarious about stealing everyone’s stuff and annoying them for no reason other than to cross off a to-do list. Maybe it was imagining the humans’ perspective. Maybe it was the spastic piano score that only played when you did anything. But whatever it was, this game had me cracking up for its entire 2 hour duration. You can’t deny that the price is a bit steep for such a small game, but the amount of enjoyment I got from an afternoon with this game left me satisfied with my purchase. And with fun secret challenges to discover along the way and to struggle with after the credits, leaving me saying “Ohhh I didn’t think to do that!”, Goose Game is just enough of a game to justify everything that it has going on. 9/10
Most Fun Bad Game: Animal Crossing Pocket Camp
The OG followers will remember when this was a New Leaf blog, and you best believe it will be a New Horizons blog when the time comes. I hated this game when it came out in 2017. I thought it was a boring, empty waste of time that did nothing for fans of the series. But after numerous updates and quality of life changes that I totally missed the boat on, Pocket Camp actually became worth spending time on. I jumped back into this game following the post-E3 hype for New Horizons, and I’ve logged in every day since.
I won’t mince words, this game is bad. It’s nefarious, predatory mobile game practices at its most kawaii. But damn if I don’t love these new furniture sets they introduce every few weeks. I love piecing together the new items I get from each set or event to make a camp that I’d enjoy spending time in. I’ve spent more money than I care to admit on Pocket Camp’s take on loot boxes (not bank-breaking, but more than I’m proud of). But I honestly can’t say I regret any microtransaction I’ve made. I’ve had a lot of fun with this game in the past few months, and getting everyone I know back into it alongside me made it even better, just like previous Animal Crossing games. The crux of the enjoyment is still sharing your designs and collections with your friends, just like always. And that was Animal Crossing enough for me. Not giving this one a score because its still a scummy mobile game, but if you haven’t played this game since launch, redownload it and give it a look-through.
Best Game I Played in 2019: Banjo-Kazooie
Everyone knows how good this game is. I played it as a kid, and I’ve known my entire life that this game is great. I’ve reminisced with friends about this game, I’ve watched countless Let’s Plays, and I’ve sung its praises as the best 3D platformer there is.
But I hadn’t ever actually beaten it until this past Summer.
And it turns out that I didn’t even know how right I was all these years. Banjo-Kazooie is a perfect game. Every level is meticulously crafted to be unique, interesting, and just big enough to where they’re fun to explore, but small enough to where there is no empty space. Banjo (and especially Kazooie) control like a dream. The dialogue is the textbook example of charming video game dialogue. And the game is just long enough to feel full, but it never overstays its welcome by retreading old ground for the sake of making the game longer. And don’t even get me started on the soundtrack. There’s a reason Grant Kirkhope left the 2000s as the only household name that came out of Rare. This game could not be improved, and its stood the test of time against the other greats of the genre like Mario 64, A Hat in Time (imo), and Mario Odyssey, to maintain its spot as the game that every 3D platformer wants to be. It’s the best game of the genre, the best game I played this year, and it’s now among my top 5 favorite games of all time. An obvious 10/10.
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Thanks for reading this. Feel free to respond, send a message, or send an ask with any of your thoughts on these games, or even some of your games of the year. I’d love to read them. I’ll see you next year for my 10 page review on New Horizons, which will surely double as my GOTY post.
